


Who Knew

by Lxllyanne



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Background Relationships, Beauregard/Yasha - Freeform, Blood, Caleb typical backstory, Canon Typical Violence, M/M, Nott/alcohol, PTSD, Panic Attacks, Previous Self Harm, Trigger Warnings, Violence, but a lot is not, fjord/jester - Freeform, ill add more triggers as I think of them, mentions of torture, some canon stuff is the same
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-22
Packaged: 2020-02-28 13:40:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18757555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lxllyanne/pseuds/Lxllyanne
Summary: Caleb doesn’t like to think much about his past. Much from the time he graduated is painful for him to think of. But one little light from that time was Molly. Molly and Caleb met after he graduated from highschool, when the carnival came to his little town. It has now been at least ten years since they spoke, and he is here, in Zadash. Caleb doesn’t know what he should do now, but he knows that he never wants to loose Molly again.





	1. Who knew

**Author's Note:**

> So basically this story is based off the song Who Knew by p!nk. Molly and Caleb has a crazy summer fling, that turned into a year long correspondence, before Molly was met with a crude rude letter from Trent, and then radio silence. So yeah, now its been like 12 years, and they have met again! We will just have to see what happens.

Love seems endless in the eyes of a teenager first falling in love. It makes life seem amazing and full of wonder. It gives the birds a song to sing, and the trees a dance to perform. It is innocent at these stages, almost shy, but so full of passion that it scares all those who know the truth. Those who know that love is never given so freely. That love is a tool to be used against you, to make you cave into submission. At least that was Caleb’s philosophy. He believed he knew best on these topics, after all it had happened to him. 

Back when Caleb went by his birth name, Bren, he felt as if he knew everything. He really was a genius, valedictorian of his little high school in his small town of Blumenthal, though he would admit that was no hard feat, and he was quite the talented wizard. He had even been offered a full paid scholarship to the Soltryce Academy, which was a huge honor. For an 18 year old young man, he practically had it made now. He would be able to help his parents financially, make a name for him, and possibly even become a powerful archmage. The only thing he didn’t plan on was romantic entanglements. To be honest he found them to be much too distracting for his likes, and would rather skip over them entirely. One would be surprised though how quickly that opinion may change. 

For Bren, this changed when the carnival came to town. Now Bren was never one for the frivolous nature of things like a carnival. Why waste time on such an obvious scam at money, when he could study, improve, become something so much more than he was now. He had firmly decided he was not going. Of course though, when Astrid made up her mind about something, well you very rarely ever changed that.

So that was how he found himself sitting on a bench, reading a book, while he waited for Wulf and Astrid to get off of whatever stupid ride they had found now. He wished they would hurry up so they could go home. He was having a lot of trouble focusing, it was so loud by this ride. Maybe he would just leave, while they were away, go home and study some more, practice his spells, yeah maybe-

“Hello there darling,would you like your fortune read?” A sultry voice asked him. He peered over his book to find a very decedent purple tiefling staring back at him, his red eyes piercing into his own. 

Bren would have been lying if he said he was not staring at the tiefling, that he was not think that this man was the most attractive being he had ever seen. Normally a very eloquent, if not sometimes condescending, speaker, he was baffled by his lack of the ability to speak.

“U..um n..no” Bren said, trying to pull his words together. _Come on Bren, pull yourself together. You’re better than this._

“Thank you for the offer sir, but I am quite preoccupied right now.” He pointed to his book, then looked back at the teifling. 

“Well hopefully you will not be to busy tonight dear, you wouldn’t want to miss the big show. And please, call me Mollymauk, Molly to my friends.”

“Well thank you Mr. Mollymauk, but I do not think I will be attending.”

“Attending what? Now come on Bren, are you being a stiff again? Avoiding fun again?” 

Bren turned to watch his friends approaching. Astrid, who had just spoken, came to sit beside him, tossing her long red curls over her shoulder, while Wulf stand beside her, his hulking figure looming over Astrid and Bren. 

“Hello there Darling. Yes is seems here your friend here, Bren was it? Bren here is being a stick in the mud. First he was too busy for a fortune, then too busy for the show tonight, it’s like he doesn’t know how to have fun.” 

“Bren, now come on. Be nice to Mr….”

“Mollymauk, Molly to my friends.”

“Be nice to Molly. Of course we would love to go tonight. Wouldn’t we Wulf?”

Molly turned slightly to look at the hulking figure as he nodded, bren noticing that this gave Astrid time to quickly cast charm person.

“Now, Molly, we are friends, and friends don’t make friends make entrance fees, right? Of course they don’t. No friends even buy things for each other, Like pretty gems and stuff. You would love to by me something nice, right Molly?”

Molly was now facing Astrid again, looking at her like she was his everything. 

“Of cour--”

“Astrid no. Cut it out.” Bren said, standing up and flicking Molly in the arm. “I do apologize for my friends, obviously they are children.”

Molly shook his head a little, and narrowed his gaze at Astrid. “Dear, I don’t know if your mother ever told you this, but it’s rude to charm strangers.”

Astrid glared back, and haughtily stood up “Whatever, Wulf let's go find something actually fun to do in this shithole and leave Bren with this Freak.”

Astrid grabbed Wulf’s arm and stormed off.

“I’m sorry about her. She is a bit hot headed. You are not a freak and she had no right to do such a thing.”

“No offense Bren, but your friends seem like assholes.”

“They aren’t my friends. Acquaintances from school that want to ride on my coattails in to history, or whatever this small town thinks I will become. They are not my friends though. They just refuse to leave me alone.”

Molly chuckled, looking Bren over. “You definitely have the potential to be something great, your aura shines quite brightly.”

“My aura… is that some of your circus bullshit?”

Molly reared back in over exaggerated offense. “Alright, first off I will have you know this is not a circus, it is a carnival. We just happen to have a circus like event in the evenings. Gods. and Second, I would never bullshit when it comes to the circus. I thought you would know that by now, I mean we have known each other for at least five minutes now. That’s practically a lifetime to a fly.” 

Bren chuckled as he watched Molly. “So do you perform in this ‘Carnival Performance’.”

“Not yet, though I am trying to convince Gustave to let me. So we could maybe hangout and watch the show together?” Molly said, hopeful smile plastered on his face.

Bren swore his heart stopped beat once again, looking at this beautiful man, who may have just asked him on a date. He thought for a moment, weighing his options. His brain told him to say no. He needed to study, to get better, to be the best, but then he looked at Molly’s eyes, and he melted. 

“U..um yeah, that would be nice..” 

“It’s a date then! Now I’ve got to go do some marketing for the show, do my job and shit, but meet me here at 6?”

Bren looked down at his phone, it was 3 now. He could read for a couple hours, then go to the show. 

“6 is perfect, see you then Mollymauk.”

“ See you then Bren.”

God all the things Caleb would have told himself if he could go back them. He would tell himself to not go to the Academy, to get away from Astrid, and Wulf, and to never ever speak to Trent. He would tell himself to tell his parents he loved them, to hold onto Molly, to not loose him, like he already had. But it was too late. Now over 10 years later, Caleb sits in a local bar with his roommate, Nott, and all Their friends, recalling those last moments of happiness before shit hit the fan. He often finds himself thinking of that summer, of the love he lost.  
Granted it most likely didn’t help that the same carnival had just arrived in Zadash, but Caleb highly doubted Molly would still be apart of it. That was like, 10 years ago. But when he saw the poster, he couldn’t help but think of him. 

“CAAAAAYYYYYLLLLLEEEEEEBBBBB WHHHHYYYY AREEEEEE YOOOOUUUU STARRRIIIINGGG OFFFFFFFFFF???”

Jester always could pull everyone out of their own head, even if she did give them a headache while doing it. 

“Sorry Jester, I was just zoning out. All the alcohol I suppose.”

“Aren’t you Zeminian, you should be able to drink us all under the table.”

“Nah Jes, I could totally take him, he’s too scrawny to be able to heavily drink.”

Of course Beau always had to interject with her opinion. 

“Thank you Beau.” Caleb rolled his eyes as he spoke “just because I am Zeminian doesn’t mean I have a high alcohol tolerance.”

“Well you should. I mean it is really a waste.”

“Thanks jester.”

Jester turned back towards Fjord to continue their conversation. Beau got up to go find where Nott was with the next round of drinks, and Caleb picked back up his book, continuing the story in his mother tongue. 

After a little bit, the door to the bar swung open, as if it was the grand entrance on a soap opera. In walked a large woman, very pale, with long dark hair that faded into a greyish white. Behind her stood a lavender teifling covered in tattoos with piercing red eyes, who, if Caleb had been paying attention and saw enter, would have sent Caleb into a panic. 

Molly looked into the bar as Yasha and him enter. Quite a quiet place, not like the clubs he usually hit up, but it would do for advertising. He walked from table to table, handing out fliers, until he reached an odd lot of folks. A blue teifling sat chatting with a little.. Halfling maybe? He couldn’t tell. Next to the teifling sat a half-orcish gentleman who was arm wrestling a human woman, and he seemed to be loosing. Beside the possible Halfling sat a scruffy man leaning forward into his book, pretty a scrawny cat who sat on the table. 

Molly walked up, making a grand show off his arrival to the table, as Yasha stood to the side, arms crossed and eyes rolling. 

“Well look at you fine folks, you seem like the type that would love a show! You should come stop by the carnival. We just arrived in town and are putting on a fabulous show! You wouldn’t want to miss it! Only a silver for entrance. But it is the show of a lifetime!”

“Guys did you hear that!! Oooh we should totally go! Ooh! That will be so much fun! Ooh thank you mister! I’m jester by the way, it’s great to meet you! This is Fjord, Beaugard, but we just call her Beau, Nott is the cute little Halfling, and the scruffy human who is being rude is Caleb.” Jester spoke quickly, pointing to each of them as she introduced them. 

Caleb looked up when he heard his name, only to find himself unable to breath. I..it couldn’t be, could it? Logically it made no sense for Molly to be here, but he never forgot a face. Maybe he was confused though. Maybe it is just someone who looks like him. Yeah that must be it. There was plenty of Purple teifling a in the world, right? 

Caleb hadn’t even realized that the teifling was speaking again until he heard the words he had been dreading. 

“— Mollymauk, but Molly to my friends, and I assume we’re friends now. “

Caleb’s heart stopped as Molly’s gaze landed on him, the look of recognition clear in his eyes. Caleb found himself struggling not to bolt, not to just run. He tried to keep himself in his seat, but he just couldn’t. 

“Excuse me, uhh restroom.” He whispered before bolting towards the bathroom, trying to hold back the tears that were rushing forward, barely making it to the bathroom before he collapsed to the floor, bawling his eyes out. He ran his nails up and down his arm, trying to ground himself. This could not be happening. No. He left that whole life behind. Molly can’t be here. Gods he needs to leave, to go somewhere where he won’t hurt him again. He can’t hurt Molly again. Oh gods, he did not know what to do. 

Back in the main room, Molly watched as the Halfling girl, Nott, hopped off the table, and grabbed the cat. 

“I’ll go check on him and bring him Frumpkin.” She said to the others before shooting a glare at Molly. “I don’t know who you or what you did to my boy, but I will not hesitate to cut you down where you stand.” She spat out as she stalked towards the bathrooms to find Caleb. 

Yasha moves herself in front of Molly protectively, while Molly stood behind her motionless. If he wasn’t sure that was that was Bren before, he definitely was now. He didn’t look anything like the Bren he knew before, except for his eyes. His eyes were still the most beautiful things he had ever seen. But he was small now, so dirty, nothing like the well dressed, academic he once knew. His hair was matted and he had looked so scared. 

Molly sighed and placed his hand on Yasha’s shoulder. “I swear I didn’t hurt B..Caleb. I knew him years ago, back when we were both still practically children.”

Molly watched as the human girl looked him up and down before she spoke. “I hope your right. Because if you did purposefully hurt him, or plan to now, you may as well just leave. I don’t know how far back you knew him, but he is a good man now, and doesn’t need some petty bullshit. Don’t tell him I said that.”

Molly sighed, pushing past Yasha to take a seat. 

“Look I'll tell you as much as I can about when I met your friend, if it will get your threats to stop. You all seem like nice people and I hate having people hate me for no reason..”


	2. Blow me one last kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Caleb sees Molly again, they both seem to spiral out in their Own ways.

Everyone stared at Molly with baited breath as he took a deep breath in. 

“We just had like a fling one summer, that’s it.”

“Bullshit that’s it, like someone doesn’t have that kinda reaction for just a fling!”

Molly knew the crass human was right. It had been more than a fling. A fling was a couple nights warming each other’s beds, booty calls, and beach days. A fling was not crying when it was time to part, it was not trying to keep them even when you left, it was not still missing their smile over a decade later. But these were strangers, they did not need to know that. 

“Look I don’t really see how this is any of your business. I didn’t even recognize him before he flipped out. It was just a fling, I have a lot of those.”

Fjord shook his head at Molly, jester sitting beside him, arms crossed. 

“Hey, look I’m sorry your friend freaked out and all, but he seems pretty skittish. Not my fault.”

Molly resisted the urge to jump as he felt a strong hand rest on his shoulder. He looked up to see Yasha looking down at him. 

“You know I could just cast zone of truth guys! Make sure he isn’t some really bad bad guy or anything! For Caleb’s sake of course.” Jester mischievously smirked as she already began reciting the incantation. 

“Jester..” 

“Too late Fjord, I already did it! See! Now Molly, tell us the truth please.” 

Ah shit. Of course they were magic users. Molly glared at Jester before huffing. 

“Didn’t your mother ever teach you it was rude to cast spells on people without their permission.”

“No, but my mama did teach me how to tell which guys have the best dick! Like Fjord he! He probably has a very large one. My mama said you can tell from the way men walk and—-“

“Jester! Can we not! Please!” Fjord sputtered out, his green face turning bright red. 

“Soorrrry.” Jester sang before leaning over towards Molly, placing her hand up “some people just can’t take a joke, you know?” 

Molly chuckled a bit and shook his head, about to speak before jester continued on. 

“You know, if you’d like I could tell you about how big Caleb’s dick is! Then you can know if it’s shrunk or not. I mean not like your interested, it was just a quick fling, meant nothing, riiiggghhhtt. I mean you totally looked at him before like it was ‘just a fling’.” 

“Fine you got me, so maybe it was more than a fling, at least to me. You see we met the summer after he graduated. I had been with the carnival for two years at that point, and we met and hit it off. I mean he was so smart and and just amazing. We were practically inseparable the whole summer. Then the carnival moved on come fall, and he went to the Academy. I tried to write him, he said the academy had a very strict policy with computers and phones. At first it went well, then all of a sudden I got a nasty letter and never heard from him again…”

Molly still remembered that letter. He remembered the fancy penmanship of Bren, the way his heart broke…

_He didn’t love him.. he thought he was a freak, of course he did. He was meant for such amazing things, why would caleb find anyone as dumb as him attractive. It had all just been a lie._

__

__

_Molly curled into a ball on the floor of the wagon, sobbing uncontrollably. He thought it was love. No it was love! What happened… he was so sure…_

__

__

_That was how Yasha found him that afternoon, pathetically curled around himself, though Yasha said he was not being pathetic…_

_She tried to soothe him, stayed with him, told him that he deserves someone better. But he doesn’t want someone better. He wants Bren… but he left… just like everyone else he left. He was empty.. just.. empty._

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Caleb was a wreck. A complete and utter mess. Choked sobs greeted Nott as she entered, frumpkin in tow. 

“Hey there Caleb.. can I sit here?” She asked, pointing to the spot next to him. 

Caleb tried to suppress his sobs as he nodded. 

“Hey, hey you can cry, it’s okay. Really Caleb.”

Nott dropped the disguise of Halfling girl, reverting back to her goblin form, before sitting beside Caleb, leaning into him, giving him something to ground him. She placed her hand on his arm, and let frumpkin climb into his lap.

“Hey it’s okay. It’s alright. Let it out, okay?”

_No. I don’t deserve kindness. I don’t deserve this. I’m trash. No. This is my fault my burden, my-_

“Caleb, I know that look. Please let me help you.”

The pleading look on Notts face made him crack, the sobs he tried to suppress coming forth once again, as he curled around not and frumpkin. 

They sat like this for a while, Nott could only guess, but Caleb knew it had been at least 20 minutes since he came in here, before he calmed down enough to find his voice once again. 

“I’m sorry Schatz… this is really my fault.”

“No it’s not. I’m not fully sure what happened, but can’t be just your fault.”

“Ja it is… I.. knew Molly back right before I went to the..the.. the.. you know.”

Nott nodded in understanding, her eyes imploring him to continue. 

“We were.. fond of each other. He was so nice. He was a ray of sunshine in the cold cut throat world I found myself about to enter. He was with the carnival you see, and they visited my town for the summer after I graduated high school. We were both young. I was only 18. I thought I knew everything… I thought I could do anything…”

“You can caleb! You are incredibly smart! And nice! And-“

“Danke.. Danke. I know there is no use arguing with you, but back then I really was young and stupid… and we tried to make it work, you know? I told him I loved him.. he loved me. We wrote letters.. the academy wanted to limit how much contact we had you know, no phone calls or emails. Just letters, letters they could change, they could intercept… I got a letter from him one day, saying that he found someone better. That he lied… I was so angry, so hurt, and I wrote him back and called him horrible things, said awful things.. now I know he was right, and that he was better off… no he is better off without me. I can’t go back out there Schatz… I can’t..”

“It’s okay Caleb. You don’t have to go back out there if you don’t want to.. I get it… we can stay here, or we can try to sneak out. We could use sick day, that would work!”

“danke nott.. I just think I want to sit here right now if that okay with you..”

“Of course! That’s always alright with me. We can just sit here for a bit, relax for a while, wait till you know who leaves.”

“Danke.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“So you guys were like totally boyfriends! That is like so awesome! For a while there I thought Caleb was only attracted to books! I mean he met my mom and he didn’t like fall in love with her, and she’s like super hot, like even hotter than me! And he didn’t think any of the guys I pointed out were hot! He always just ignored me! But apparently he does like dicks! I just needed purple teifling dick!”

“Alright dear, I wouldn’t go that far. We were both just kids, and he made his point very clear that he did not want me anymore.”

“Are you sure bough, like really sure sure? Because like the academy is kinda fucked up. Fjord was gonna go there, but then we heard about what happened to caleb, and no siree, Fjord decided that maybe that place wasn’t the best for him and—“

“Hey jes, maybe ix-nay on the cademy-ay. We really shouldn’t pour out people’s backstories to strangers, especially when they aren’t here?”

“No no no, now you need to explain, what happened to bre.. Caleb? What’s wrong with academy, he seemed to love it!”

“Well apparently I can’t tell you, even though I think it would like totally make everything better. But SOMEBODY seems to think I shouldn’t tell you! Just know that it was like shitty, like really shitty!”

“Jester! Enough! It’s not our place! Don’t be a jackass!” Beau snapped, shooting her a look.

“It doesn’t matter how shitty it was. It doesn’t excuse the things he said.”

Beau, Fjord, and Jester all looked at the tall pale woman, Yasha, who had barely said a word this whole time. 

“It doesn’t excuse his behavior. You don’t have to be a dick just because things suck.”

“Sorry ma’am, I hate to tell you, but there are some things that can possibly excuse a person. Trust me on that.”

Yasha glared at the half-orc, and Molly could feel her tensing. He understood why she was mad, he was too, but if whatever happened was really that bad, then maybe it really did excuse it. 

“Maybe I should go try to talk to him..”

“Yeah man” beau nodded “that actually sounds somewhat sma—“

Beau was interrupted by the songs hard to be the bard playing.

“Oops one second darling, I need to take this.” Molly paused as he answered the phone. “Don’t worry Desmond, Yasha and I will be there on ti-

**_“Molly! We need you, now! Kylre went fucking crazy!! He killed some crownsguard, took Toya and ran! Your the best tracker I know Molly, we gotta find toya!”_ **

Molly paled as he heard this “Yeah yeah of course! I’m coming!” Molly quickly hung up and turned to Yasha “Come on Yasha! They need us back now”

Yasha just nodded as the others looked very confused. 

“Is everything alright?” Fjord asked for the rest of the confused bunch.

“No not really, one of our performers apparently went batshit crazy and took the kid he preformed with! I’m sorry I gotta go find him!”

“Hey we can help find him!! I mean it’s the least we can do, after the spell and all!” Jester said hoping up “we are like totally cool and can fight really good! We are total badasses!”

“If you can keep up sure, the more the merrier.”

Beau nodded, grabbing her staff before turning to Fjord.

“You two go with them. I’m gonna go get caleb and Nott! They will probably be pretty helpful.”

“Yeah okay, just run fast okay? I’ll text you where to go.”

“Sounds good!” She called already running towards the back. Luckily the bar was practically empty, or this would have been a much harder task. 

Beau burst into the men’s bathroom, seeing caleb curled into Nott. 

“Hey jackasses look alive, there is a problem at the carnival, dead guards, and a kidnapped girl, come on!”

“Wait wait wait, I don’t think this is such a good idea Beau, I mean I won’t be much help in a figh—“

“Gods damnit Caleb stop your pity right now! We can deal with shitty self esteem later. We have to help this kid, okay?”

Nott looked at Caleb reassuringly “I know your worries, but we have to help.”

“Ja ja ja I know, no time to be a coward.. fine. Then we go home after this. I have had enough of people today.”  
“Yeah sure whatever, LETS GO!”

And with that the three of them sprinted out of the bar, hurrying to see whatever the fuck was happening down at the carnival.


	3. We are the warriors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Have fun storming the Warehouse!”
> 
> The group finds themselves got on the trails over Kylre, though both Caleb and Molly find themselves to be a bit distracted.
> 
> TW: mention of animal death *kinda*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is late and it is such an awful chapter. It’s just a filler for the time before the fight, which will be next chapter! Sorry for the wait!

Caleb’s heart was racing. He purposely ran away from fights normally, so why he found himself speeding off towards the fight was beyond him. Beau said a child needed help, and even he wasn’t cowardly enough to not help. 

“Alright, it should be on our left up here!” Nott shouted from behind Caleb, pointing to where there was a Ferris wheel. “I think that’s it!” 

“Alright, hang on.” Beau said as she quickly turned into the carnival parking lot.

All three of them jumped out, ready to spring into action, though some shakier than others. 

Caleb watched as Beau scanned the area, before spotting Fjord, beckoning them over. 

“Glad you guys made it. This place is a mess. It seems like the towns guard have taken care of the issues here, but Molly is trying to find tracks to follow this Kylre guy that took the girl.”

“God I feel like I’m in fucking King Kong or something..”

“Beau, this may not be time for jokes..”

“Come on guys, Molly thinks he may have found some tracks.”

Caleb started heading towards Molly, trying to force down the bile creeping up his throat, trying to just focus on the task at hand. 

“Where does it look like he went?” 

Caleb watched Molly jump, turning quickly to look at Caleb. 

“It looks like he is headed north, out of the City.”

“Was there anyone else with him? Or just the girl?”

“I’m not sure, there is only one set of tracks though, so I would assume only him and Toya.”

“Ja. That would be a safe assumption.” Caleb turned towards Fjord and the others, “It looks like he’s headed North, you all are good to head out, Ja?”

A chorus of Yeahs quickly rang out as they took one of the carnivals open wagons and began to follow the tracks. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Molly was trying to distract himself from the rising panic in the pit of his stomach. He couldn’t believe it, what had happened? Why had Kylre snapped? So many unanswered question, but right now he had to focus on tracking, just on tracking. 

Molly was so in his own head he hadn’t even noticed that he breathing had sped up, or that a familiar scruffy wizard came to stand beside him. It wasn’t until he felt a hesitant hand on his shoulder that he realized he was starting to unravel. 

“Breathe Molly.” The thick Zemnian voice whispered. “It will be alright, Ja? She will be fine. Just breathe. In for 6 counts out for 4.” 

Breathe.. breathe. Yes Molly could do that. Focus and breathe, focus and breathe. 

“Do you need a moment?”

“N..no no. No time for that. I’m fine, just a lot all at once. But we need to keep going. No time to pause.”

With that Molly found himself shrugging Caleb's hand off of his shoulder, hurrying ahead, leaving him in the dust. He couldn’t focus on this right now. He couldn’t focus on his soothing voice, at the warm grounding of Caleb’s hand. He just needed to go. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Caleb stood back, mentally berating himself. _Stupid. Of course he wouldn’t want your help. Your an idiot. You made it worse. Of course he hates you. He should. They all should. You deserve it, deserve to be hated. You deserve…_

“Caleb? Caleb!” 

Caleb almost jumped out of his skin as Nott called his name. 

“Uh..uh Ja? Sorry Schatz, lost in my brain.” Caleb pointed offhandedly to his head. 

“It’s alright Caleb. Let’s just keep going okay? Do you want to talk about it?” 

“Nein. Danke for the offer, but nein. We must focus on the little girl, Ja?”

“Of course. But later, okay?”

“Ja, later.”

Caleb felt a little hand grab his own, Nott obviously trying to comfort him, as they began to follow Molly. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It felt like they traveled for days, though it had been at most a couple of hours, when Molly suddenly halted, causing a domino effect of halting from the others. 

“The tracks go into there.” Molly said, pointing towards a seemingly abandoned warehouse. It was cliche almost, like seriously, why did the bad guys always hide in an abandoned building. 

“I can send my cat in, if you would like, to go ahead and scout out the place.”

Molly bit back an infernal curse on his tongue. What was up with Caleb, he was constantly sneaking up on him. Back when he knew him as Bren, he carried himself with an air of confidence, importance, you always knew he was there, you just felt compelled to look at his. Now, he was always hiding, Molly noticed. He hid behind his large coat, his loud friends, he always hid. He was like a scared animal, and Molly wished he knew why..

“Mr. Mollymauk, you are alright, Ja?”

Oh yes, right, Caleb asked him a question. 

“Yes, Yes, completely fine darl… Mr. Caleb. Yes, sending your cat into scope would be a brilliant idea.”

Damn it, he had almost slipped again. This was not his Bren, he had to rights to him any longer, he had made that very clear years ago. A new name meant a whole new person, Molly knew that well. 

“Alright. Do you mind if I place a hand on you shoulder, I can not see when I do this. Nor can I here. But I can tell you what I see from Frumpkins eyes.”

Caleb looked so nervous even asking to place a hand on him. He refused to look at Molly’s eyes, instead looking at the ground. Molly wished he could pull him into a hug, and chase away whatever made him so nervous and scared. 

“Of course. I don’t mind. Do what you need to dear.”

Molly watched as Caleb’s eyes went wide, his face turning pink and flustered. So maybe the pet names would be fun. He supposed, as long as Caleb didn’t ask him to stop, no harm. He called everyone pet names, should their history make Caleb any different, Molly thought not. If anything, Molly thought that maybe Caleb needed to affection more than anyone. Molly knew Caleb didn’t love him anymore, but maybe they could grow to be friends again. 

“Danke..” Caleb muttered after a moment, hesitantly placing a hand on his shoulder as his eyes glazed over to an almost icy clear blue. 

“Okay, Frumpkin is heading into the warehouse. It is kind of dark in here, wait, there is a small light up ahead. I see some large creature, looks almost like a toad man maybe—“

“That’s Kylre!” Molly whisper shouted to the others “Kyler’s in there!” 

“He has a small child with him. She looks tiny, a dwarf maybe? It’s hard to tell in the lowlight. Wait they're getting closer. Oh no no no no frumpkin! Run run run—-“ 

Caleb reared back, his eyes returning to their normal shade of blue, though now their were tears welling in them. 

“U..um.. frumpkin is.. ah… he was kicked by the toad man thing..”

“Caleb.. I’m sorry. Don’t worry, I can ‘borrow’ some more supplies” 

Molly watched as the goblin girl grabbed Caleb’s hand. 

“Let’s just go kill this bastard, okay, then we will get Frumpkin back.”

“Yeah I mean come on, no offense Molly, I know he was like your friend or some shit, but who the fuck kicks a cat!” Beau cursed, knuckles white and ready to punch. 

“Even I will admit that is not okay.. not to anyone.” 

Molly was surprised to hear Yasha speak, normally one to remain silent in the face of company. 

“Ja. Well let’s go save the little mädchen, okay?”

With that they walked into the warehouse, weapons at the ready to face whatever this asshole would throw at them.

**Author's Note:**

> Please like and comment to let me know how you all like this concept! I’m trying to get back into writing, and have had this idea for a little while!


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